Improvement in water-wheels



UNITED STATES PATENT .OEEICLEO' JONAS HOLMES, OF OLAYVILLE, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-WHEELS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, J oNAs HOLMES, of Clayville, in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tater-Wheels, such as are provided with buckets and are commonly termed overshot and breast wheels 5 7 and Ido hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the saine, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure lis a vertical section of an overshot Water-wheel with my improvement applied to 1t, the'plane of section passing through the shaft of the wheel at right angles; Fig. 2, a vertical section of an ordinary overshot waterwheel, the plane of section also passing through its shaft at right angles 5 Fig. 3, a detached perspective view of the bottom of a bucket of a wheel having my improvement applied to it.

Similar letters of reference indicate corre- Spending parts in the several figures.

The ordinary bucket waterwheels-that is to say, those which are commonly termed overshot and breast wheels-depend upon the gravity of the water for power, imparting little or no power to the wheel, and in order to obtain the greatest amount of power from gravity, the buckets have been so arranged in overshot wheels as to receive the water at the top of the wheel, a little at one side of the shaft, and to hold it as long as possible o'r to retain it in the buckets at the side of the wheel, wh ere it is received at as low a point as possible. In breast-wheels the buckets receive the water about on a horizontal line with their shaft, but the buckets are arranged with a view of holding the water as long as possible, or until they reach a point nearly under their shaft. Buckets, however, when constructed in the best possible manner, with a view to this end, commence to discharge their water as soon as they pass the level of their shaft and gradually lose their contents until they reach a point nearly underneath their shaft. Hence it will be seen that all the water which escapes from the buckets previous to their arrival at the point underneath or nearly underneath the shaft is principally wasted or lost. To obviate this difficulty, I have the bottoms of the buckets perforated with holes-any suitable number-so that the several buckets ofthe wheel will all communicate with each other, and the water instead of escaping from the buckets or being spilt out from the same as they pass below the level of the shaft, will pass from one bucket to the other and form a continuous sheet of water at one side of the wheel, no water being discharged from the buckets until tlley reach a point nearly underneath the water-wheel shaft.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents the shaft, Il the arms, and C the buckets, of an overshot water'wh eel. This wheel may be constructed throughout in the usual way, and the several parts therefore do not require a minute description. The bottoms D of the buckets G are perforated with holes a, any suitable number. (See Figs. l and 3.) These holes form a communication between the buckets all around the wheel, as

will be seen by referring to Fig. l. In consequence of thus boring or perforatin g the bottoms D of the buckets, the water is allowed to escape from one bucket to the other and form a continuous sheet at one side of the wheelthat is to say, from thepoint where the buckets receive the water to the point where itis discharged, as shownin Fig. l. rIhe ordinary overshot-wheel E, it will be seen by referring to Fig. 2, commences to discharge its water as the buckets b pass below the level of the shaft F of the wheel, the buckets being gradually emptied until they reach a point nearly underneath the shaft F. It will be seen that all the water that escapes from the buckets b is wasted or lost, whereas, by my improvement it is retained until the buckets reach the point of discharge. Experiment has proved that the area of the holes c in the bottom D of the buckets should bear a relative proportion to the speed of rotation of the buckets, in order that the water may pass with a proper speed from one bucket into the other, so that the several buckets may be kept iilled until they reach their point of discharge. If the holes a are not of sufficient capacity, the buckets O will spill their water and a loss of power will be the result, and if the holes have too large a capacity, the water will escape too rapidly from one bucket to the other and much of the power due to gravity will be lost.

In order to avoid defects from any error in the capacity of the holes a, it would probably be preferable to have said holes made fully as large as would be required under any circumstances, and have the bottoms D provided with slides, so that the capacity of the holes may be regulated as required. This arrange ment would possess the advantage of varying the speed and power of the wheel, so that the latter could be adapted to the work required of it without any Waste of water.

rI his invention has been practically tested and found to answer admirably well, a large increase of power having been obtained over the ordinary overshot water-wheel.

Another advantage my improvement possesses, and that is, the wheel has the power of regulating itself on account of the iow of JONAS HOLMES.

Witnesses M. S. PARTRIDGE, Gr. W. REED. 

